The cutting edge has always been at our core. Innovation is driven by our creativity and collaboration.

Kristi Marley

Working at HARMAN

From our groundbreaking innovations in automotive to our industry firsts in audio to our game-changing technologies for enterprises, our employees are the driving force behind HARMAN’s reputation as the technology partner of choice for the past 60 years and counting. Embodying our corporate values of Integrity, Inclusion, Teamwork & Respect, Innovation and Excellence, our success would not be possible without the expertise, dedication and engagement of each and every one our people.

At the core of our culture is bold thinking, an entrepreneurial spirit, a strong work ethic and a collaborative approach to serving our customers. To safeguard these values and further our relentless commitment to innovation, quality and sustainability, we are passionate about attracting and retaining talent that personifies these traits and thrives within HARMAN’s unique culture. We support the creativity and hard work of our employees with optimal resources and development opportunities that deliver the best results and constantly develop professional skills. At HARMAN, we strive to enhance our workplace through programs and measures expressly designed to enable employees to achieve their full potential.

104% growth in number of HARMAN employees

At HARMAN, we’ve never been followers. Innovation is driven by our creativity and collaboration. And while we have a singular vision of staying far ahead of the competition, it’s our knowledge, expertise and diverse perspectives and experiences that drive our ability to remain a transformative force in the marketplace. That’s precisely why we call upon our thousands of engineers, designers and manufacturing teams around the world to lead the way in promoting an inclusive, synergistic work environment. We believe our success as an organization is vastly enhanced by the intellectual and cultural diversity that results from recruiting the best and brightest talent from all corners of the globe, as well as our ability to diversify and engage our teams. Our work force includes professionals with a broad spectrum of skill sets, backgrounds, heritages and identities that, when combined, strengthen our capacity for innovation.

As of June 30, 2016, we had approximately 26,000 full-time employees (29,000 total), including approximately 7,300 employees located in North America and approximately 18,700 employees located outside of North America.

HARMAN Women’s Network:

Engaging and leveraging the diverse talents of women across the globe is central to our vision of diversity, inclusivity and continuous improvement: empowering the women of HARMAN to achieve superior individual and business results that create a sustainable and competitive advantage.

The HARMAN Women’s Network (HWN) is a voluntary employee business resource group that is open to all employees. It works to cultivate women’s leadership, advancement and career-broadening opportunities through a variety of tools and forums that include the Listen Up! speaker series, networking and skill-building programs.​ The HWN is important to attracting, developing and retaining successful women across the company.

We’re proud that our senior management team is among the best in their respective fields and that they have substantial global experience. We are also proud that over 90 percent of our regional leaders come from their respective geographies. We also strive to promote from within with 75 percent of the CEO-2 level openings in fiscal year 2016 filled with internal leaders.

We believe in investing in our employees, and we continually look for ways to promote personal career development. We offer a variety of measures to balance individual development with company growth, such as hands-on experience and formal training programs that encourage our people to excel at what they do.

HARMAN University, our comprehensive online and location-based learning resource, is designed to develop leadership, business, functional and technical skills, to further stimulate a learning culture and provide meaningful opportunities for employees’ professional development and maximize the brilliance of HARMAN's extraordinary talent, ultimately making our company stronger and more successful.

HARMAN’s People Cycle is an established process that aligns individual targets and development plans to key business goals and then encourages continuous feedback that helps our employees achieve high performance and growth.

Our online talent management system enables employees to track their performance and be more involved with career development. It also provides leadership with data to inform decisions on learning needs and succession management

In addition to online resources and personalized development plans, HARMAN conducts an ongoing succession planning process for senior management and other key executives

For HARMAN, success doesn’t just mean healthy financials. It also means creating an environment that ensures all of our workers’ safety, health and wellness. It means respecting the natural world around us by upholding stringent environmental regulations. And it means enacting multi-faceted sustainability initiatives at our operations across the globe.

We conduct internal health and safety audits to identify non-conformance areas and opportunities for facility improvement in the health and safety process.

We collect metrics on a monthly basis that include hours worked, number of injuries, and number of lost time injuries.

Of the five HARMAN facilities that have formal agreements with trade unions, the Querétaro and Germany facilities’ collective bargaining agreements include health and safety topics related to the working environment (sexual harassment, working hours, etc.) and applicable regulations. In Querétaro, forty-nine percent of employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, while eighty-three percent of employees in Germany are part of the trade union.

HARMAN maintains health and safety committees comprised of site managers and plant operations personnel to support a positive and safe workplace. Approximately 9 percent of the total workforce – roughly one out of every 11 employees – participates in formal health and safety committees. Their responsibilities vary by location and division and are guided by local labor regulations and requirements.

‘Good enough’ is not acceptable at HARMAN. We evolve our policies and practices, aiming to further improve our performance in health and safety at every opportunity.

Our India facilities conduct a monthly safety forum for all employees to discuss various health and safety concerns

In our Brazil manufacturing plants, an internal accident prevention group, comprising elected employees, identifies situations that could lead to health and safety incidents before they occur and focuses on taking actions to prevent and bring awareness to these issues

At HARMAN, we view our communities as integral partners in our success. Helping our communities thrive isn’t simply our obligation, it’s our motivation. While HARMAN has a long history of giving back, 2016 marked the launch of our most ambitious global cause initiative - HARMAN Inspired. Its mission: to empower the next generation to realize their possibilities through the power of music, technology and service.

We believe access to education and opportunities for young people in communities around the world are essential keys that unlock a full range of possibilities for the future. In collaboration with leading nonprofits around the globe, HARMAN engages young people in diverse, hands-on experiences that help them learn critical Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills, foster their creativity and open their eyes to potential careers.

In FY2016, HARMAN donated more than three million dollars to charitable organizations.

While HARMAN operates in 33 countries, 88 percent of our employees call six countries home: the United States, Germany, India, China, Mexico and Hungary. Within all of these countries, we invest in significant community initiatives, including volunteerism, community relations and sustainability programs.

Students rocking out at the Little Kids Rock partnership launch in New York.

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HARMAN Chairman, President and CEO, Dinesh Paliwal, and CEO of Little Kids Rock, David Wish, show off their new equipment.

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Young students at the Little Kids Rock partnership launch in Nashville.

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Student performers put on a show at a holiday concert at the HARMAN Flagship Store in New York City.

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A student drummer bangs out a beat at a holiday concert at the HARMAN Flagship Store in New York City.

To strengthen music education nationwide in underserved public school districts in the U.S., HARMAN joined forces with Little Kids Rock, a leader in contemporary music education. At the cornerstone of this partnership is the newly expanded Technology Curriculum, which focuses on how technology and engineering have changed the music landscape and broadened its capabilities. HARMAN underwrote the HARMAN Technology Education Fellow for Little Kids Rock to develop new and expanded technology curricula for the organization’s network.

In early FY2017, HARMAN and Little Kids Rock launched Jam Zone, powered by HARMAN, an online hub devoted to making learning how to play music fun and easy. At the Jam Zone, users can follow interactive videos and downloadable PDFs to learn how to play a wide variety of instruments including guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and even ukulele. You can also learn how to write a song and produce music, all absolutely free.

Pradeep Chaudhry, Country Manager - HARMAN India, and Arundathi Nag, Founder of Ranga Shankara, at an event held to announce HARMAN’s continued support to the theatre.

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HARMAN colleagues showing their support for accessibility to the arts through their relationship with the Ranga Shankara theatre.

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Students performing with the Sunshine Orchestra through the HARMAN supported KM Music Conservatory in Chennai.

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Students from the KM Music Conservatory Sunshine Orchestra program.

HARMAN has pledged support to one of India’s foremost theatres, Ranga Shankara, a world-class facility based in Bengaluru. Founded in memory of the hugely talented theatre, film and television actor, Shankar Nag, Ranga Shankara is dedicated to cultivating the art of theater by making it more accessible to the masses. HARMAN also extended its relationship with A.R. Rahman’s KM Music Conservatory, a music college based in Chennai, by supporting their Sunshine Orchestra project — a program specifically designed to impart free music education to talented children from less-privileged backgrounds. The project aims to train more than 200 students in the next two years. In addition, HARMAN also runs an extremely successful food coupon program where employees donate their unused food coupons, which are converted into monthly groceries for close to 230 children from 12 different non-governmental organizations (NGO).

In our Professional Solutions facilities, we have an initiative to plant 50 trees per year in the annual reforest campaign to commemorate environmental international day.

Student participants from around the world and HARMAN colleagues teamed up for a photo, after completing their capstone projects at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

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A child learning music in the after-school program through the JIUQIAN Volunteer Center.

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Children of migrant workers participating in the Les Choristes program.

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Children performing a scene from Utopia – a musical based on migrant children’s own stories of pursuing their dreams.

HARMAN collaborates with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, enabling students to immerse themselves in projects that help develop their problem-solving and planning abilities in technology and management. This program benefits students and our workforce by combining the experience and wisdom of our employees with the uninhibited perspectives of tomorrow’s potential leaders. Twenty engineering and business studies students from nine countries worldwide participated in this initiative.

The JIUQIAN Volunteer Center is a Shanghai-based charity that focuses on fostering confidence, open-mindedness and charitable giving among migrant children. Beginning as an after-school program for science and music, the JIUQIAN Volunteer Center has grown to include curricula that revolve around social responsibility, cultural exchange and self-confidence. Through this charity, children take chorus, music and dance in their spare time and give performances in their hometown every year. HARMAN will be assisting JIUQIAN both financially, as well as through volunteer efforts by our area employees. Among the programs we’re supporting is “Les Choristes”, the first choir established specifically for the children of migrant workers, and also “Utopia”, a musical adapted based on the real stories of migrant workers’ children.

HARMAN trainees host a class from a local kindergarten building small toy cars and traffic lights for the kids to play with.

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As part of a joint project with a local kindergarten as a lesson on traffic safety, HARMAN trainees built full functional traffic lights that were then installed in the backyard playground.

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The HARMAN Straubing team sharing their donation of a JBL and AKG PA system to our partner school, The Straubing Institute of the Hearing Impaired.

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HARMAN donated bicycle helmets, bicycles and chairs to a refugee shelter, located in Karlsbad.

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The HARMAN office in Karlsbad is giving opportunities to people like Efrem, a refugee from Eritrea, to have technical internships at the company.

HARMAN supports a variety of education programs in Germany. At the Pope Benedikt School near Straubing, we supported an initiative focused on the education and personal development of disabled children. In 2015, a group of 13 students from the school were invited to the HARMAN office to work with employees on a small project, appropriately named HARMAN Lights You Up. Using a small candle, the students heated up the Peltier-element inside a thermal generator transforming heat into electricity with a voltage of 1.2 volts. They then further increased the voltage to 5.0 volts through a DC booster and used it to light two blue LEDs that displayed the words “Inclusion HARMAN” on a plexiglass screen. This hands-on experience was a highly engaging introduction to engineering for children who might otherwise never be afforded the opportunity.

Upon launching HARMAN Inspired, we initiated a new partnership with “Kinder Brauchen Musik” (Kids Need Music) Foundation, headed by the well-known singer of children songs Rolf Zuckowski. HARMAN donated a JBL PA system, AKG microphones and a Soundcraft mixing console for the foundation to use during their Class Trip to Music program. During this workshop-like program kids learn how to play instruments, sing and, after a week of practicing, finally perform together on stage. HARMAN is also giving financial support to this project to keep it running and give more kids the opportunity to participate and explore their passion for music.

HARMAN has long been dedicated to serving the communities in which we live and work. In FY2016, we launched the YourCause Employee Engagement Platform, which allows employees to search and sign-up for volunteer opportunities and track their efforts.

Straubing, Germany

HARMAN employees donated old clothes and care packages to benefit orphan and refugee homes in Romania.

South Jordan, Utah

HARMAN employees volunteered for the United Way of Utah’s annual Day of Caring, painting and doing yard work for a temporary housing facility.

Franklin, Kentucky

HARMAN volunteers gathered at a Habitat for Humanity event in Franklin, helping build a new home for a single mother and her four children.

Bengaluru, India

HARMAN sponsored India’s largest women-only run: Pinkathon. The run creates awareness around breast cancer, and the event saw participation by over 10,000 women — including nearly 80 from HARMAN.

Székesfehérvár, Hungary

HARMAN volunteers hand-delivered professional-grade instruments to support the music program at Gorsium School of Art, one of the top art schools in Hungary that offers students a variety of faculties and workshops.

Querétaro, Mexico

HARMAN employees annually partner with the Querétaro Industrial Park and the Polytechnic University of Santa Rosa, Jáuregui to plant trees near the Arenal River.

London, UK

HARMAN employees took part in a series of challenges to fundraise for a music suite and multi-sensory room for TouchBase South East, a center for disabled people in Barnet, run by the national deaf-blind charity, Sense.

Northridge, CA

HARMAN Employees raised more than $20,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Great Strides Walk.

Pune, India

HARMAN employees regularly participate in tree plantings and maintenance drives in the outskirts of Pune to improve bio diversity in the drought affected region.